Highway road



w. E. WILLIAMS;

HIGHWAY ROAD. APPLICATION FILED AuG.II. 1920.

Patented July 25, 1922.

SITES TENT QFFEQE.

HIGHWAY ROAD.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented July 25, 1922,

Application led Augustll, 1920. Serial No. 402,864.

To all whom t may concern Y Be it known that I, WILLIAM ERAsTUs WILLIAMS, a citizen of the United States, a

resident of Chicago, in the .county of Cook and State ofIllinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Highway Roads, of which the following is a specication.

My invention relates to highway roads that are intended to be used for automotive vehiclessuch as automobiles of all types including heavy trucks and tobe used with horse drawn vehicles as well.

The objectof my invention is to produce a roadway that would be as nearly permanent in character as possible, require the least amount of repairs, stand the heaviest traiiic with the least injury and at the same time produce a road that may be cheaply made and installed in service. The basic feature of my invention is involved in the peculiar construction and arrangement of a metal track and the means of installing it and holding it in place in the roadway.

Reference will be had to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a transverse section of what might be termed a double track highway road or a road provided wide enough for two of the largest vehicles to pass each other onthe tracks of the highway.

Figure 2 is a plan view of what is shown in Figure 1.

f Figure 3 is a plan view of a single section of my.v track.

Figure 4 shows a means of joining the sections of the metal track. v

Figure 5 is a plan view of a sheet of metal of which the metal track of the road is made.

Figure 6 isv an end view of the part shown in Figure 5.

Figure 7 is an end view of the plate after it is bent to form from the sheet shown iny Figure 5 and Figure y6.

Figure 8 is a side elevation of the metal track alone.

Figure 9 is a plan view of a modified form of the track. s Y

Figure 10 is a sectional elevation of the piece of track shown in Figure 9. .f

Figure 11 is another modiied form of the track.

Figure 12 is a-sectional elevation of tht3 track shown in Figure 11. Figure ,1.3 is a washer used with the tie rods.

`It has been well demonstrated that the cement concrete roadway is more lasting and gives better service than almost any other roadway that has yet been devised for all classes of highway vehicles, including automobiles, but it has the defect of being nearly inelastic, and this feature under certain conditions leads to yloosening the concrete from such reinforcement as may be used and to subsequent disintegration. These conditions often exist when the soil beneath the roadway is such that moisture changes its roadway supporting capacity at different points and allows it to bend under the strains of heavy vehicles.

In the construction herein set forth I employ steel rails capable of carrying any probable load without such bending as might cause cracking of .a concrete structure as sociated therewith.

Further, the sections of the rail are made sufficiently narrow and vshort to allow each slab to act as an independent member in the roadway to accommodate itself to frost, temperature and moisture variations inthe subsoil in the body of the road itself.

In the drawing l indicates a flatsheet ofv metal of suitable thickness, depending upon permissible costaud the heaviest loads that are likelyto be carried on the road. It is assumed that to inch plate is sufliciently thick for the purposes of the road as khere vt-he edges'of the sheet is two fold. One is to give depth of -girder to the side walls of the sheet after it is bent in channel form as is indicated by Figure 7 and further to furnish apertures in the sidewalls of the channel for the admission therethrough of the cross bonding rods or reinforcing rods for the concrete. The ltwo edges of the sheet l are indicated by 3 and are left. rather wide 100 and stocky to furnish a body of meta-l for the edges of the flanges of the channel shape when the sheet has been bent into channe form.

' The sheet 1 is bent into the channel :for-m 105 4 having the' side ianges 5 as indicated by Figures 7 v'and 8 and when this channel isk incorporated into the track blocks or'sections there extend through the apertures 2 the transverse reiniorcing rods G. These rods are shown in plan in Figure 2 and in elevation in the roadway in Figure 1. The steel channel 1lis embedded in a concrete block 8 tied by the transverse rods and by longitudinal rods 7 extending across the ends of the transverse rods on each side of the main rail channel -l and thus each section of the steel track is bound into a concrete block 8 substantially the same length as the steel channel rail piece. The length of these blocks depends upon the nature somewhat of what forms the earth base of the roadway.

lhere extreme variations in temperature and moisture and bulging conditions are encountered these lengths will be rather short.l perhaps not to exceed 10 to 12 feet, or in that neighborhood, but where there is a fairly good subsoil these lengths may be eX- ceeded. The point is to make each individual block so short that any unequal bulging or support given by the soil in varying weather conditions may be taken up by a sort of a hinged action between the several blocks of the roadway.

Further the channel rails,^together with their associate concrete are intended to be stiff enough to transmit over` the entire base, the load to be carried by any` set of wheels so that even though there might not be a good bonding of each block in the roadway, the traiiic would automatically iforce a good seating of each rail into the soil base of the road.

l The several blocks are joined'together in the roadway by having the ends of the channel rails 4; made to telescope each other for a short distance as is indicated in Figures 3l and l. One end of each channel is ymade smaller as shown at 10 and offset slightly at the top intended to make an overlap of the pieces as they are joined together `in the road. The concrete slabs attached toa part of the channel rail are divided by short strips of iron embedded in the end of each block with a filling of elastic material such as asphalt as is indicated by the joint 9 in Figure 2. The channel rails 4, together with their blocks of concrete 8 are arranged to correspond with the gage of standard vehicles, and the channels are wide enough to receive automobile tires and provide in addition narrow7 marginal spaces. The two rails 4 forming the single track are bound together by cross rods 11 for the purpose of holding the two rails to gage. These rods are inserted through holes provided `in the molding of the concrete into the channel rails 4. y

In makingl the several `*rail blocks 8 of concrete I fill in the spaces with macadam, broken stone or gravel 12 and onthe outside margins of the rail I also provide a margin of macadam, broken stone or gravel as indicated by 13. In place of macadam, broken stone or gravel these blocks may be blocks of concrete or other suitable road material, when desired.

One of the first essentials of a good roadway is drainage and while it has been the custom to provide tile or subsoil drains for high class roads, trouble has been encountered by the moisture disturbing the supporting base of the road even though tile drains were present. The concrete or other roads of similar types begin to show their failings usually on the margin of the roadway and breaks that take place there seein to, as it were, ravel off the edges and gradually extend over into the central portions of the roadway until the road is seriously damaged or destroyed. This may sometimes be accounted for by the fact that through the central body of the roadway no moisturer reaches the earth beneath and hence this ground remains somewhat firm and undisturbed by variations and moisture conditions. The water that falls on the top of the road is substantially entirely drained ofi Ato the edges of the roadway, which causes the edges of the roadway to receive an undue amount of moisture measured by any given rain fall. In other words it may be said that the immediate edge of the roadway receives from three to four times the normal average rain fall for any given area as it must take the water from the whole surface of the road. This has the effect of causing the edges of the roadway to take the rain fall of what would amount to two or three times the normal rain fall ofthe region and produces an excessive softening of the soil at the edges of the road surface and this is where the road supporting material is put to its severest strains and burden and therefore the breaking of the roadway is invited as it were at 'the edges, caused by the discharge of the excessive moisture romthe central portion of the roadway on to the edges. y

The arrangement of my macadam sections or broken stone or gravel sections 12 and 13 as shown permits the water that gathers on any single slab to be discharged down through this material and in the earth face oithe roadway I provide longitudinal tile drains 14 underneath this porous material and at lsuitable intervals I arrange 'cross escape tile ,drains 15 which insuresa drainage of the face of the road. Y

Any softening of the base which takes place anyway in a varying degree, due' to climate changes will take place in 'a balanced relationship to any given slab'vor given section of my roadway and thus that particular section may accommodate itself to thebase with perhaps slightdistortion of the general base surface, but not a Sicient amountv to damage the surface of the roadway. The concrete reinforcing, together with the channel rail is-intended to so bind the single units or blocks 8 that they will be sufficiently stiff to embed themselves into a uniform bea-ring on to the roadway underneath whenever there occurs an inequality in the subsoil due to excessive moisture that permits a bulging movement of the-soil itself.

In the construction of this roadway the several slabs 8 with their reinforcing bonding and channel rail 4 may be made up at a central plant as individual slabs and cured in the plant to a proper degree of set of the concrete in ayard and then when the concrete has roperly set and aged and tempered un er the best conditions possible these blocks may be carried out by a motor truck provided with suitable derrick constructions and deposited in the roadway slab by slab in their entirety and thus permit the road to be built at a much less cost than is possible where the concrete is laid directly in place in the roadway itself.

A rod is often damaged by use before the concrete is fully set, and this feature is taken care of by the method of manufacture of my road as just described.

In certain sections of a roadway where hills are encountered a smooth metallic surface such as my channel section provides may not give suiiicient traction to overcome the grades on hilly portions of the roadway. To provide for this I arrange a slightly corrugated surface for the top surface of the channel sections 4 as is indicated in Figures 11 and 12 wherein 16 indicates the corrugations pressed into the top surface of the road rail 4. In place of the corrugations as shown I may when desired expand the metal of the top surface of the rail 4 or the web of the channel 4 in the same manner that I expand the sides of the plate as shown in Figure 5 and when this is done it will have open spaces 17, Figs. 9, 10. These spaces will be filled with the concrete material and thus the metal on those surfaces will appear only in spots and the concrete will extend up and make a frictional Contact surface for the tread of the wheel. The concrete may wear down slightly below the metal of the steel and thus the edges of the steel itself will give an adhesive effect to the tread of the wheel. Further the apertures extending through the surface of the plate and channel rail will aid in the bonding of the concrete within the body of the channel.

It may appear that a smooth surface that is now given a concrete road occasions but slight wear on the tires of the vehicles yet the tire wear will be less on the smooth surface of my rails than perhaps on any other material, even that of a relatively soft asphalt surface. The metal surface of the rail whereas with a cement concrete surface therek is a rough surface that abrades the tire as the latter is constantly changing indegree of compression and is continually slipping slightly when the vehicle is in use. The same thingoccurs, to some extent, on common asphalt roads the asphalt holding gritty materials. Slip of the tire also occurs when steel is used but the steel surface the slip of this rubber' in contact with the steel will wear the rubber less than perhaps any other material available for road service in all places excepting on the-incline where adhesion is requiredy and produced by means equivalent to what I have shown in my Figures 9, 10, 11 and 12. I

What I claim is y 1. In a structure of the class described, a channel rail laid longitudinally with the roadway, with'the web of the channel furl nishing the tread surface of therail and having its flanges expanded for thevpurpose of giving depth, saving metal and for apertures for the entry of concrete; in combinaV tion with a concrete mass in which the channel is embedded on all sides excepting the top 4surface of the web and a seriesk of reinforcing rods extending through the web of the channel transversely binding the concrete on eitherside of the channel.

2. In a structure of the class described. a vehicle -track composed of metallic channel sections having the `flanges downward rand the web of the channel upward for the wearing surface and embedded in concrete and bound thereto by metallic reinforcings running transversely of the channel and the margins of the said concrete bound also longitudinally in parallel relation with the channel rail by metallic reinforcings.

3. In a. structure of the class described, a metallic road rail made of a iiat sheet having the metal of the edges of the sheet expanded furnishing apertures in the plate and formed with the expanded sides into the flanges of the channel and with the web of the channel furnishing the road surface and bonded into a road material aggregate on each side of the said channel.

4. In a structure of the class described, the combination with a rail consisting of a flat metal plate having its lateral marginal portions bent downward and provided with apertures, of a concrete base enveloping said marginal portions and engaging in said apertures and upwardly flush with the rail.

5. In a structure of the class described, a pluralityT of rail sections, channel shaped, with the webs of the channels forming the wearing road surface and with the flanges embedded in a suitable road material, apertures in the flanges of the said channel and with the road material bonded through these apertures and with tie rods connecting the channely sections together to hold them to gage. v f

6. A road unit consisting of a metal plate adapted in width to receive any ordinary wheel and bonded in the middle portion of a materially wider concrete slab of approximately the same length, the whole constituting a preformed unit to rest upon a suitable road base and with other like units form continuous parallel lines of wheel supports of a roadway.

7. In a structure of the class described, a series of metallic rails extending longitudinally and furnishing a part of the tread bearing surface of the road and each rail bonded in a concrete slab and the several slabs having rails interlocked at their ends forming a continuous tread for the rail part of the road.

8. In a structure of the class described, a metallic rail forming a part of the wearing surface of the road and having flanges eX- tending in vertical relation to the road surface and said langesperora-ted by having the body of the iianges expanded in the form of expanded metal' and bonded into the road aggregate. Y

9. The combination with blocks, approximately impervious to water, arranged in continuous parallel lines separated by a space materially less than theusual distance between vehicle wheels and projecting laterally far beyond the usual paths of wheels spanning, or on opposite sides of said space, of material in said space adapted to allow water to pass to the stratum beneath; whereby water escapes from all parts ofthe roadway While barred from ,partsA immediately below the load bearing area. 4

10. The combination with continuous lines of parallel, impervious broad slabs arranged to receive on their middle portions and ata material distance from their margins the wheels of ordinary vehicles, of porous materialat the lateral margins of the slabs, allowing water to escape to the strata below but only at a distance from points below the paths usually followed by vehicle Wheels.

l1. The combination with parallel lines of impervious slabs each many times wider vthan the tire of any ordinary vehicle, of corresponding lines of metal plates fixed inthe middle portion of each line of slabs to receive vehicle wheels, porous material between the lines of slabs, and drainageconduits arranged to receive downwardly escaping waterlbefore it can reach portions of theroadbed immediately beneath the load-bearing slabs, whereby parts of the bed directly bearing the load are kept comparatively dry at all times.k y i )Signed at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, this third kday of August, 1920.

Witnesses:

B. J. BERNHARD, F. M. ZoBEL. 

